Brussels - IOM, together with other UN agencies and NGOs issued yesterday (12/03) a joint statement raising concerns ahead of the EU institutions' negotiations on 27 March on the EURODAC Regulation.

The statement warns that the proposed system would inappropriately allow the use of coercion to take the fingerprints and facial images of children.

Established in 2003, the EURODAC Regulation establishes an EU asylum fingerprint database. When someone applies for asylum, no matter where they are in the EU, their fingerprints are transmitted to the EURODAC central system. The proposed changes to the system aim to expand the current database of asylum applicants to better identify “irregularly staying third country nationals” using biometric data.

The joint statement stresses that coercion of children in any manner or form in the context of migration related procedures violates children’s rights, which EU Member States are committed to respect and uphold.

IOM and its partners urge the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament and the European Commission to exempt all children, no matter their age, from all forms of coercion in the EURODAC Regulation, in full compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Read the joint statement.

For more information please contact Melissa Julian, IOM RO Brussels, Tel: +32 2 287 7133, Email: mjulian@iom.int